Category Archives: The Beginning Writer’s Tool Box

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.” Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity,Hugh MacLeod

Creative writing programs – certificate, degree / residency or low-residency – available through colleges and universities are the first to come to mind, but I know these are not feasible for everyone. They’re expensive, as are conferences. You have to be able to carve time out from your day job and family responsibilities. Sometimes transportation is a challenge. You might be homebound due to illness or disability. If these are some of the barriers you face, there are lots of resources to explore. Not all require you to get your hot little body to a classroom. Some won’t cost you a dime. Some are moderately priced.

AUTODIDACTISM (SELF-EDUCATION) is education without the guidance of teachers or coaches. If your circumstances are such that this is the route you must go, don’t turn your nose up at it or feel in any way inferior. Don’t be tempted to think it’s not credible. You’re not going to do surgery on anyone. You are going to tell stories and write poems. Your best teachers are the other writers you read and study. Your best practice is writing every day. This is not to discourage people from aspiring to and obtaining higher education or to put that route down. It’s just an acknowledgment that some may not have the temperament and others may not have the resources.

“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for ten years.” Ray Bradbury.

Some self-taught writers and poets :

Maya Angelou, poet, writer, entertainer, activist.

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer, essayist, and poet.

Truman Capote,novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.

Camilo José Cela, Nobel Prize for Literature

John Clare, poet.

Joseph Conrad, novelist.

Julio Cortázar, a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, scholar and poet of New Spain (Mexico).

Machado de Assis, considered a great Brazilian writer.

Mukul Deva, a well-known Indian writer, keynote speaker and coach.

Harlan Ellison, multi-award-winning speculative fiction author and screenwriter. Ellison attended Ohio State University for about a year-and-a-half. He was expelled for hitting a professor who criticized his writing.

William Faulkner, Nobel Prize for Literature.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist writer, lecturer, and thinker at the turn of the 20th century

Hermann Hesse, Nobel Prize for Literature.

Maxim Gorky, writer.

Knut Hamsun, Nobel Prize for Literature

Henry Miller, famous for breaking with existing literary forms.

Jack London,a novelist, journalist, and social activist; a pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, London was one of the first writers to earn a fortune from writing

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, primogenitor of modern horror fiction.

Nazir Naji, a Pakistani writing in Urdu, rose from poverty to progressive news columnist, intellectual, and a speech writer to former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Sir Terry Pratchett, a writer of science fiction, fantasy and children’s books. He is quoted as saying “I didn’t go to university. Didn’t even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did.”

José Saramago, Nobel Prize for Literature.

Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize for Literature. A Bengali who became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

Mark Twain, writer and humorist.

August Wilson, a playwright, attended school through ninth grade and then continued his studies at the local library.

George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize for Literature, left school in his teens. It is said he compared schools to prison.

ADULT EDUCATION: The cost for adult education is nominal or free. These tend to focus on remedial education (which some readers might feel they need) and work training. The roster of classes just might include art, poetry, memoir writing, and short-story writing. I encourage you to think outside the proverbial box as well. Many many years ago I took a bookkeeping class to help with the tax records and the business side of my writing. Computer classes might also be a worthy consideration if you feel you need to kick your skills up a notch. I know of only one publication that accepts hand-written poems by snail mail. Fewer and fewer accept submissions via the postal service. Most now want submissions by email or through a submission processing system like Submittable.

The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network provides seven keys to adult education.

Adults cannot be made to learn. They will only learn when they are internally motivated to do so.

Adults will only learn what they feel they need to learn. In other words, they are practical.

Adults learn by doing. Active participation is especially important to adult learners in comparison to children.

Adult learning is problem-based and these problems must be realistic. Adult learners like finding solutions to problems.

Adult learning is affected by the experience each adult brings.

Adults learn best informally. Adults learn what they feel they need to know whereas children learn from a curriculum.

Children want guidance. Adults want information that will help them improve their situation or that of their children.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE: In the US these colleges offer programs that are two years (generally associates degrees) or short-term education leading to certificates. There’s nothing that says you have to walk the degree or certificate path. You can create your own program focusing on literature, writing, communications, and technology classes that directly meet your personal needs and goals as a writer. For added convenience, some classes are available online.

“A community college is … a term [that] can have different meanings in different countries: most community colleges have an “open enrollment” with a high school (also known as senior secondary school) completion, but usually refers to an educational institution that provides workforce education and college transfer academic programs.” MORE Wikipedia

LIBRARIES and INSTRUCTIONAL BOOKS: For the frugal there’s always the library, the best budget-wise book option. Many libraries have kind volunteers available to pick-up and deliver books to the homebound. Your local library may host book-clubs, writing clubs, and classes. The local library is a good place to start.

Type in “How-to Write” in the Amazon search feature and see how many books come up. Writer’s Digest and The Writer (to name just two publishers) have more books on writing than you would ever need. They address the subject every which way: poetry, novels, character development, plotting, revising, query letters, crafting the short story, ghostwriting, freelancing, and on and on.

LOCAL POETS AND WRITERS: Find established poets and writers living near you – it will take a bit of research and networking – and see if they teach classes or if they host weekend workshops. You may find listings in writer’s trade magazines. Often classes will be once a month or once a week and held at the writer’s home. This helps to keep costs low and therefore registration fees are low and perhaps affordable for you. Value added is that if the coach/instructor is impressed with your work, they are sometimes willing to use their connections to help you get published. Another value added is that you will make friends with other poets and writers.

DISTANCE LEARNING (REMOTE CLASSES)/POETRY SCHOOLS: I suspect there’s a lot of this around the world thanks to current technology. You’ll have to do some digging. Do an online search and network with other writers and you might find some good small schools in your area or region. As an example, the Poetry School in the UK sounds genius, “largest provider of poetry education, providing inspiring education and ways to connect with other supportive poets.” Poetry School offers downloadable courses for remote learning. Second Light Network offers remote workshops too.

YOUTUBE: This is a truly rich resource that includes writing classes, literature courses, poetry readings, and discussions with panels of poets and writers, which you can access for free and at whim. Often the “classes” are presentations made at those conferences you couldn’t get to or couldn’t afford. Literature courses are posted by such prestigious institutions as Yale University. Poetry readings come from a broad range of outlets that include, for example, Emery College and the Dodge Poetry Festival. Do a search by poet, school, or a more specific interest like ecopoetics. Here’s a sample:

I hope this helps you find the instruction you need or want. Good luck!

Often information is just that–information– and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often (generally) a means to generate income, publicity and marketing mailing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I never attend events anymore. Caveat Emptor: Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.

ABOUT

Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”

“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton

Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.

“No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons.” Ishmael Reed, Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down

Trade and professional publications for writers offer writing how-to features along with info on new directions in publishing and on the business side of writing; for example, how to submit work, how to target the right publications, how to organize your work and plan your day, and how and when to write query letters.

The Writer, Writer’s Digestand Poets & Writers are perhaps the most well-known and credible. The Writer and Writer’s Digest provide writing tips. All three publish relevant news about writers and their books, updated market lists, and the information on the latest trends in our field. Which magazine/s will work for you? That would depend on your taste, goals, and experience.

Publisher’s Weekly is expensive ($249 a year) magazine but it is available at many local libraries in the U.S. It’s a trade magazine for publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Its emphasis is on book reviews but it also provides a range of news-worthy features addressing self-publishing, trends in sales and technology, and other germane topics. Its content often includes tips from well-known writers. Publisher’s Weekly can certainly be useful but again: you might do best to just peruse it at the library.

I’ve provided the links to Amazon Magazine Subscriptions. Remember that those are automatically renewed.

This is by no means a comprehensive list but it’s more than enough to get you started on the path to finding the resources that will work best for you.

The magazine covers below give you a good sense of what you can expect from these publications.

If you are reading this from an email subscription, you may have to link through to the site to view the slide show below.

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Often information is just that–information– and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often (generally) a means to generate income, publicity and marketing mailing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I rarely attend events anymore. Caveat Emptor: Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.

ABOUT

Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”

“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton

Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.

The Christian Writers Market Guide provides 1,000 listings of publishers, periodicals, specialty markets, conferences, contests and other services including writing courses. A month-to-month subscription to the listing guide is $5.99 a month. A six-month subscription is $3.00 a month, and a twelve-month subscription is $2.99 a month.

Duotrope boasts that its site publishes 7,000 listings of active publishers and agents for writers of fiction, poetry and nonfiction encompassing literary, genre and academic. It also has listings for the visual arts and provides an advanced search feature, a submission tracker, and interviews with editors. There is a free trial period after which you pay $5 a month or $50 a year.

RELATED:

Often information is just that–information– and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often (generally) a means to generate income, publicity and marketing mailing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I rarely attend events anymore. Caveat Emptor: Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.

ABOUT

Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”

“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton

Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.

“The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant re-arrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.” Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Well, here we are in a new year, a fresh slate, a soupçon of promise, a river of resolutions to overcome bad habits, engage in good ones, and meet personal and professional goals. For many the latter means the affirmation of publication and a wider audience. Toward this end, among the tools available to writers is Submittable.

Submittable, a web-based software submission processing system that manages and organizes submissions, is a marketplace that is free to writers and artists. You can use it to search out publication opportunities. It hosts thousands of calls for submissions, grant and fellowship announcements, contests and other potential outlets for your creativity. Submittable serves publishers as well as writers and is supported by the fees publishers pay.

While comprehensive, convenient, and certainly affordable, it will still take time and effort for you to find the appropriate opportunities. We writers do need to read the publications and their guidelines. The guidelines are on Submittable but, unless the publication is free online, you will need to go to the library or buy the journals to study them.

If you didn’t know this before, I’m telling you now: don’t submit anything without making sure your material is a fit. Yes! This is a courtesy to editors and it is work, not necessarily work you welcome but work that is required. You might consider market research boring, but it can interesting, educational, and entertaining. You are after all reading some stellar material.

While the use of Submittable is free to writers, keep in mind that literary magazines tend to charge submission, reading, and entry fees. On the finance side of things, you still have that with which to contend and you might be well advised to come up with a monthly submission budget. I do. It keeps me out of trouble. When you make some sales, set aside that money – or some portion of it – to fund more submissions.

If you haven’t explored Submittable, I suggest you do so. This is one tool I use myself. I rather like it.

Note: Sunday Announcements: Calls for Submissions, Competitions, and Other Information and News will return to The Poet by Day on Sunday, January 13.

RELATED:

Often information is just that–information– and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often (generally) a means to generate income, publicity and marketing mailing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I rarely attend events anymore. Caveat Emptor: Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.

ABOUT

Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”

“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton

Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.

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The Poet by Day is an information hub for poets and writers. Featured each week are Calls for Submissions, Contests, Events and other useful news. Responses to WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPTS are published on the following Tuesday. SEND ANNOUNCEMENTS AND PRESS RELEASES to thepoetbyday@gmail.com

The BeZine fosters understanding through a shared love of the arts and humanities and all things spirited; seeks to make a contribution toward personal healing and deference for the diverse ways people try to make moral, spiritual and intellectual sense of a world in which illness, violence, despair, loneliness and death are as prevalent as hope, friendship, reason and birth. Submissions to Jamie Dedes bardogroup@gmail.com

Actively supports peace, environmental sustainability, social justice and a life of the spirit.

The BeZine

Social Justice as the world burns and wars rage Global protest actions on the Climate Crisis have been scheduled for September, as fires rage from the Arctic to the Amazon [1]. Potential conflicts in the Middle East seem on the verge of flaring into their own wildfires, most prominently as I write this: Taliban-US, Iran-US, […]

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis launched a formal request for information as it drafts policy recommendations for Congress. The committee’s questions for stakeholders are posted at climatecrisis.house.gov/inforequest. The committee is slated to submit legislative recommendations to Congress in March of 2020 and a final report by December. It requests feedback by November 22, […]

The sad paragraphs in the paper offer no answers but they fade a little once I’m outside although there’s rain in the air and the sudden sun silvering naked twigs as I enter the park doesn’t last. I’m in the copse where rooks are flapping in quarrel as usual, when it stops me in my […]

Dotted like a navy formation, moving like a flotilla, the waves deceive the eyes, spinning like dervish. Our planet- green and beautiful may vanish. Offshore, the white blades against the blue sea, clean energy, harnessing wind, God given and free. Will no birds soar towards the azure sky? Under the noctilucent clouds, a lifetime of […]

to be like Greta Thunberg you must become yourself completely as though there were no prison of skin to stay inside no ego to say don’t try no doors to close the kind of bravery that moves lives is not second hand it is the ultimate it’s like an we can do it trip the […]